India Rises: One Billion Rising

On February 14, 2013, people in Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Bangalore, Mumbai, Imphal, New Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad, came together in a first-of-its-kind protest against the widespread violence against women. After the horrific gang-rape of the 23-year-old medical student in Delhi, in December last year, the nation came out in protest demanding safer cities and the right to live free from fear. Joining the global movement ONE BILLION RISING, a call for the one billion women and all the men who love them to walk out of their jobs, schools, offices, homes on Valentine’s Day 2013 and strike, rise and dance, people in these cities came out to dance.

“Nothing we have ever done has spread so fast and happened so easily. It is happening in 205 countries. It is happening where women will risk their lives to dance and where women have never danced before. It is happening in all 7,000 islands of the Philippines and in over 50 cities in Turkey. There are 100 risings in Italy, 135 risings in UK and thousands in North America. We are expecting 25 million to rise in Bangladesh, and it's hard to imagine the numbers in India but they will be massive,” says founder Eve Ensler, explaining how much the campaign had accomplished before the dancing even began.